If you've been noticing that you're not getting deadlock email alerts from Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise even though alarms are popping up in Spotlight itself, then this workaround might be for you.

Before you move on though, I am assuming that you’ve an Alarm Action setup properly to send email alerts out and also you’ve configured the email server option on Spotlight to point to your mail server. For details on this, I will defer you to the Spotlight 'Help | Contents' or check out our KB links below:

So what maybe going on here. Well, Spotlight email alerts for deadlock includes an xdl attachment, which (you guessed it!) is zipped up. This presents a problem with most organizations that have restrictions zip attachments.

Here is a workaround to change the zip extension that may help you get around the issue:

On the Diagnostic Server host, go to C:\Program Files\Dell\Diagnostic Server\Agent\conf\Rule\SQLServer_SpotLight-Deadlocks.xml and make a copy for safe keeping else where

Open SQLServer_SpotLight-Deadlocks.xml with notepad but make sure word warp is turned off

Note: Windows Server may not allow you to edit and save the file directly in the install path so you may need to copy it on your desktop, edit/save it, and then copy it back with admin permission.